World’s leaders turn on Greta

with your empty words’’.

She accused governments of betraying young people. ‘‘You are not mature enough to tell it like it is,’’ she said. ‘‘You are failing us.’’ She joined 15 other child protesters in filing a formal complaint to the UN that nations including Brazil, Germany, Turkey and France had violated international children’s rights by failing to take sufficiently bold measures to reduce carbon emissions. This step appears to have provoked some governments that might otherwise have counted themselves among her allies. Macron, 41, who adopted Fridays for Future as the motto for the G7 summit he hosted in Biarritz last month and said that the movement had ‘‘fundamentally changed’’ him, abruptly turned on Thunberg. ‘‘All the movements among our youth, or the less young, are useful,’’ he said. ‘‘But now they must concentrate on the people who are further away [from their position], those who are trying to block them. These radical positions will naturally antagonise our societies.’’

Merkel, 65, whose government set out its own climate plans last week and who met Thunberg on Tuesday, distanced herself more subtly from the teenager’s ‘‘bracing’’ speech.

‘‘I would like to take the opportunity to strongly contradict her in one matter,’’ the German chancellor said. ‘‘She did not adequately address the way technology and innovation, especially in the energy sector but also in energy conservation, raise possibilities for reaching our goals.’’ – The Times